Paintball guns are used in games where participants fire at one another projectiles consisting of paint enclosed in an outer layer composed of gel. The paintball guns use pressurized gas to propel paintballs towards an intended target.
Generally, paintballs are stored in a bulk loader. The bulk loader typically sits on top of the paintball gun and utilizes gravity to feed paintballs into the barrel of paintball gun in preparation for firing at a target. Paintball guns are typically semiautomatic and can be fired as fast as a user can pull a trigger. It is necessary, therefore, for bulk loaders to allow for quick and consistent loading of paintballs.
It is not unusual for paint ball guns to occasionally jam during operation. This can often be remedied, for example by a user shaking the gun upon detecting that a jam has occurred. Alternatively, efforts have been made to place anti-jamming devices within paintball loaders. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,454 issued to Roderick L. Bell, et al. on Feb. 1, 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,781 B1 issued to Aldo Perrone on Jul. 9, 2002.